


A Study of Circles and Sunrises

by TeenWolfFlotsam (orphan_account)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-04-26
Packaged: 2018-01-20 21:07:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1525727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/TeenWolfFlotsam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny never noticed Isaac Lahey much. But after an encounter in art class, Danny can't help but notice him now. Will Danny's offer to help restore the Hale house lead to something more?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study of Circles and Sunrises

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PunkPinkPower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunkPinkPower/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Painting Circles](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1150388) by [PunkPinkPower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunkPinkPower/pseuds/PunkPinkPower). 



It began with a comment in art class.

“That’s really beautiful.”

Danny looked up to see Isaac Lahey standing beside his easel. He had known Isaac since he was six, but the two boys never really spoke, despite Isaac being a neighbor of his best friend, Jackson. They may have even played together in kindergarten, or nursery school. But then Danny had met Jackson, and Jackson had a way even at age six of making the world revolve around him, and Danny and Isaac hadn’t ever played together after that.

“You’re really talented,” Isaac continued, pointing a long finger at Danny’s canvas.

Danny glanced at his painting.

“Oh, thanks. I like to paint,” Danny shrugged, carefully swirling a splash of white paint with his brush. “But I’m no Picasso.”

“You’re the best one here,” Isaac shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and surveyed the classroom.

Danny followed his gaze and raised an eyebrow. The other students included three freshmen pretending at modern art while simply dabbing a splotch of color on paper and calling it “art” and two sophomore girls who were busy chatting about the latest dance.

“Which I guess isn’t as much of a compliment as I thought.” Isaac laughed a little and flashed Danny a small smile before he walked away, crossing the room to his own easel.

Danny watched him go before turning his attention back to his own work.

He found the process of pulling paint across a blank canvas relaxing. He enjoyed the challenge of trying to capture light and meaning in a small space. His latest project attempted to portray raindrops breaking the surface of a puddle. Or maybe a lake. He hadn’t decided yet.

The tricky part was bringing the ripples to life. Concentric circles that reflected light, spreading out across the water’s surface, overlapping and softening as they grew out from tight centers of impact.  
Danny saw circles everywhere. He found the symbolism of an unending form comforting. They could be big or small, but they were continuous.

Over the past year, too many things in his life had ended. Jackson had vanished to London. Junior year gave way to senior year, heralding the impending end of his high school career.

The most important circles were those that remained unseen: influence, interests and people.

Each invisible sphere possessed its own customs and history to be learned and understood, like a foreign culture. High school was filled with these tribes and Danny excelled at unlocking the mechanics behind these different circles, allowing him to travel between the various cliques populating Beacon Hills High with ease.

All but one.

When Ethan left, Danny vowed to keep his distance from all things supernatural. There was more going on beneath the surface, but he decided to keep out of the murky depths of Beacons Hills’ darker side.  
Avoiding the supernatural meant steering clear of Scott McCall and the strange pack of friends he surrounded himself with. Some human, others not. Stiles, Lydia. And Isaac Lahey.

After Ethan left, Danny hadn’t registered that Isaac had left too, their spheres of social influence rarely overlapping. Suddenly one day, he spotted Scott and Stiles in the locker room, an empty space next to Scott where Isaac would have been leaning against the locker.

Unlike Ethan, Isaac came back to Beacon Hills.

***

Over the next few weeks, Danny paid close attention to this neglected circle and the tall, quiet boy with long fingers and soft curls.

One day in Econ, Danny overheard them talking.

“So Derek just gave it to you?” Stiles said loudly. “Just like that?”

“Yeah,” Isaac answered and based on the casual cadence of his voice, Danny pictured him shrugging. “Just like that.”

“His house. After all that red tape nonsense with the county to get it back and he just gives it a way? That’s insane!”

“He’s moving away with Cora. He doesn’t need it,” Isaac replied. “I do. I can’t live with Argent forever.”

Danny sneaked a look at Isaac at that comment. Isaac was living with Allison’s dad?

“You’d think he’d want to keep it in the family.”

“Peter’s his only other family,”

Scott finally contributed to the conversation, his voice tinged with a brittle edge when he said the name _Peter_.

"And Malia, but she still lives with Mr. Tate."

 

Danny’s never heard Scott speak that way before, not even to Jackson, who probably deserved it. The emotion doesn't last long and Scott’s face softens.  
“Isaac’s pack. Why wouldn’t Derek give it to him?”

“Anyway, what do you care what Derek does with the Hale house?” Isaac smirked.

Stiles frowned.

“I don’t.” Stiles huffed, and began tapping his pencil on the desk. “Fine, enjoy living in your burned out hovel. I’m sure there’s plenty of room for your scarf collection.”

Isaac growled, literally growled at this and Scott glared at Stiles.

“Enough.” Scott turned to Isaac. “It does need work. A lot of work.” He paused and his next words came out sounding uncertain. “You know, you can still live with us, if you want.”

Isaac looked down at the desk. “Thanks, but I don’t want to be a burden to you and your mom. You guys already took me in once before.”

“You’re not a burden!”

“What about financially? I know you and your mom were working overtime to help support me. I can’t do that to you guys again.”

“Oh.” Scott took a deep breath and his features assumed a more upbeat expression. “Well, we’ll help you fix it, then.”

“What?” Stiles jolted, nearly falling off his chair. Scott looked at Stiles, his face stern.

“We did it with Habitat this summer: it’s the same thing. The framework of the house is ok. I mean, it’s still standing. And the building inspector signed off on it, right?” Scott glanced at Isaac who nodded. Scott’s eyes lit up, clearly warming up to his subject. “I help my mom fix stuff around the house all the time. And you, Malia and Lydia can help us put up dry wall and paint,”

Stiles pursed his lips.

“I guess. But what about electricity and plumbing? We didn’t handle that. Just because you and scarf-wolf here can survive getting fried by live wires doesn’t mean we all will.”

“I can help,” Danny spoke, surprised to hear the words tumble out of his own mouth. Three heads swiveled towards him.

“You...heard that?” Scott’s asked.

“Yeah. You guys aren’t exactly quiet, you know. Especially not Stiles,” Danny smiled. The corner of Isaac’s mouth turned up. “Besides, my uncle is a contractor. I’ve worked for him the past three summers. I can handle electrical stuff and do some basic plumbing work.”

“Oh.” Scott furrowed his brows in thought as he considered Danny’s offer.

“Also, I know about Beacon Hill’s werewolf situation. So there’s that.”

Scott and Stiles’s mouths dropped open at this last comment. Isaac raised his eyebrows and now both corners of his mouth turned up into a wry smile that struck Danny as charming.

“You know about that, huh,” Scott gulped. “How?”

“I hacked the police department’s records last summer--you’d be surprised at how candid your dad is with his notes. Practically every other case says ‘Case unsolved due to those DAMNED WEREWOLVES,’” Danny looked at Stiles before continuing. “Also, I dated Ethan, remember?” Danny shrugged. “I’m not oblivious.”

Stiles grunted and Scott looked sheepish. “Of course not.”

“Thanks, man,” Isaac said and he nodded his head. “We’d love to have you there.”

“We’ll start this Saturday. Eight o’clock,” Scott directed. “Thanks.”

“Sure,” Danny replied and they all turned to face forward, finally giving their attention to the teacher.

“I can’t believe he’s been eavesdropping on us this whole time,” Stiles muttered loudly to Scott.

Isaac craned his head towards Danny, rolling his eyes and shooting him a quick smile. Danny grinned back.

***

The first weekend Danny felt like a bit of an outsider, even with Lydia there. More than once that first day he walked into a room and it fell silent. Only Isaac dropped any pretense at keeping up appearances of normalcy, occasionally cracking sly jokes or using his claws to shred old wallpaper.

On the second day, the atmosphere thawed a little each hour and by the end of the second weekend the others began sharing stories about the past year that had Danny vowing to go away for college and never come back to Beacon Hills.

A month later and they had finally progressed from fixing wires and testing pipes to painting walls. Luck seemed to be with him and Scott assigned him to paint the upstairs hall and bedrooms with Isaac that morning.

They worked in silence for a while until Isaac spoke up.

“So, what does Meha…”

“Mahealani,” Danny corrected.

“…your last name, mean?”

“It means moon.” Danny stopped for a second and then laughed. “Maybe that’s why Ethan liked me.”

 

“Maybe,” Isaac said. “But I can think of a few other reasons why he might like you. I mean, after all you’re smart, kind and athletic. Plus you're good looking. That doesn’t hurt, either.”

Isaac gave him a sly smile and Danny flushed a little.

“Thanks.”

Danny dipped his brush into the paint can and tried to refocus on adding paint to the wall in long, even strokes.

Danny marveled that the confident teen in a dirty white T-shirt and broken-in jeans could be the same nervous boy Jackson used to pick on for getting red marker on his hands in first grade. The only constant was a haunted look in his blue eyes, obscured by curls kept just slightly too long.

A few minutes later Isaac broke the silence again.

“Can I ask you a favor?” Isaac said and Danny looked over at him.

“Sure.”

Isaac leaned against a stretch of unpainted wall, the warm glow of morning edging its way into the narrow hallway, highlighting the streak of “Meadow Green” smudged across his cheek.

“Come on,” Isaac reached out and took Danny’s hand in his. He led him down the hall and pulled him through a doorway into a large room.

They stepped inside and Danny gasped. Windows flanked three of the four walls and light poured in, making the room seem as if it glowed from within. Gold sunbeams spread out into each corner and laid claim on the space. For a moment he felt like he stood in a cathedral, the room a vast and hallowed place of light and air.

“This is going to be my room,” Isaac said, extending an arm out, the sunlight creating a halo effect around his head as he stood in the room’s center. He let out a puff of air and repeated, “My room.”

“It’s amazing.”

“It’s the first thing in a long time that will be mine. Really mine,” Isaac said. His eyes met Danny’s, a spark of hope kindling beneath the hurt. “I want it to feel like that. But I don’t know what to do to make it mine.”  
Danny tilted his head, not sure what to say.

“And I’m a terrible painter,” Isaac spread his hands towards Danny. “So I thought, maybe, you could help me.”

“Oh.” Danny blinked. “You want me to paint your room?”

“You really are the most talented artist in class,” Isaac grinned, but Danny could see a flicker of worry in his eyes.

Danny took in the room. He considered the walls covered in primer and the way each angle shaped the space.

“Well, I’d be honored. What’s your favorite color?” He asked, eager to get started.

“Orange. Not like the fruit,” Isaac said, thoughtful. “More like ‘orange’ as is sunsets, and sunrises. I want it to feel open. Not like…” Isaac stopped mid-sentence. “Never mind.”

“Like with your dad.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Danny wished he could unsay them.

He remembered the media frenzy when the police searched Isaac’s house after his dad’s death. Jackson had shared the more gruesome details the police hid from the reporters, including the freezer in the basement Mr. Lahey used to punish Isaac.

Isaac breathed in sharply and stepped back, his eyes bleeding from blue to amber and back again in the space of a heartbeat.

“I’m sorry,” Danny said. He fell quiet for a long moment, searching for the right words. “Do you trust me?”

Isaac lifted his eyebrows.

“I don’t really know you enough to trust you.”

“No,” Danny said. He cursed the clumsiness of his wording. “I mean, do you trust me to paint something you’ll like? Without you telling me what to do.”

Isaac’s lip twitched.

“Yeah,” he paused and locked eyes with Danny. “I think I could do that.”

“Then go do something else for a couple of hours,” Danny instructed. “I’ll come get you when I’m done.”

Isaac looked around the unfinished room once more, and then left without another word.

***

The sun had dipped below the hills by the time Danny finished, casting a rose hue over his skin. He surveyed his work, pleased with the end result. In this light, the room still felt as open as it did in the pale glow of morning.

Lydia knocked on the door twice while he worked, but he sent her away, because he wanted Isaac to see it first.

When he finally emerged, he found the others downstairs, sipping sodas and having pizza. He gestured to Isaac, who eyed him up and down before standing and following him back up the stairs.

Danny had gotten more paint on himself than he planned on, but he didn’t mind. He led Isaac into his new room, his hands covering Isaac’s eyes. Once in the center of the room, Danny dropped his hands.  
He had transformed the far wall into Isaac’s own personal sunrise, a dawn for his new home. The colors spilled outwards from the vibrant red and orange swirls of color creating arcs from the floor, suggesting a sun about to rise above the horizon. From there, the tones brightened into golds and yellows, flowing up across the wall and across the ceiling, now the blue of mid-day and dotted with iridescent clouds formed from colliding circles of white shaded in lilac and pale cream. As the mural reached the other side of the room, the palette gave way to soft blues and then deepened into the crimsons and purples of a summer sunset.

“Well?” he asked, watching Isaac rotate slowly in place. “Do you like it?”

Isaac froze there in front of Danny, completely still. Danny wasn’t a werewolf, and he didn’t have supernatural hearing, but he suspected Isaac stopped breathing for a second. In that instant, Danny worried he screwed up.

He searched Isaac’s eyes for an answer, but he was unable to find one. Danny took a step towards Isaac, moving to lay a hand on his shoulder.

“Listen, if you don’t like it…”

A movement caught Danny off-guard and he suddenly found himself embraced by Isaac—both arms clutched tight around his shoulders, Isaac’s chin pressed against his collarbone.

Danny hugged him back, and Isaac whispered into Danny’s ear, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Danny answered, his voice steady, unlike his pulse, which now raced, drumming in his ears.

Isaac let go, pulling back. He looked at Danny again and this time there was no worry or hurt in his eyes.

“It’s amazing. I can’t believe you did this for me.”

“Well,” Danny said, opening his arms wide, “Now you can have a sunrise or sunset whenever you want.”

Isaac smiled at him, and it was genuine, without trace of a smirk or sarcasm. “Danny?”

“Yeah?” Danny glanced around at his creation, the cathedral of light captured as best as he could.

“I trust you,” Isaac said, and he gave Danny’s hand a gentle squeeze.

Danny squeezed Isaac’s hand, and he realized he created a new circle that day—one colored by the warmth of Isaac’s smile. He smiled, ready to build something new.


End file.
